1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of plant molecular biology. More specifically the invention relates to nucleic acid fragment encoding plant lipase and its use as sunscreen component.
2. Description of Related Art
Lipases (triacylglycerol acylhydrolase, EC 3.1.1.3) belong to the family of hydrolases that act on carboxylic ester bonds. In addition to their natural function of hydrolyzing carboxylic ester bonds, lipases can catalyze esterification, interesterification, and transesterification reactions in non aqueous media. Due to this versatility lipases have a variety of potential applications for industrial uses. Examples of fields where lipases have applications are such as dairy industry, detergents, oleo chemical industry, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, medical and environmental applications. Depending on the process, the required characteristics of the lipase enzymes are different. For purposes where for example processing temperatures are high, one would need to have enzyme with high optimal temperature, for another process one may need to have an enzyme having low pH tolerance etc. Moreover, the modern biotechnology has enabled production of industrial enzymes such as lipases cell cultures, whereby the production costs can be dramatically lowered.
GDSL lipases are an important family of lipases. GDSL lipases are widely found in microbes, and a number of bacterial GDSL genes have been cloned and characterized. GDSL lipases are also found in plant species, and several candidates from various plant species such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Rauvolfia serpentina, Medigago sativa, Hevea brasiliensis, Brassica napus, Oryza sativa and Alopecurus myosuroides have been isolated, cloned and characterized.
Due to the large variety of industrial uses where lipase enzymes can be used, there is a clear need to identify and characterize new enzymes and genes coding for them and to provide systems for industrial production of the enzymes.
Accordingly, identification and characterization of genes coding for lipase like proteins in plant species tolerant to low temperatures can provide novel enzymes for industrial applications. A plant species extremely tolerant to low temperatures is Deschampsia antarctica Desv. (Poacea). Accordingly, we have studied the gene expression of this vascular plant naturally colonizing Maritime Antarctic Peninsula.